Google Donates NYC Office Space to Cornell Applied Sciences Program

Another salvo has been fired in New York’s battle to rival Silicon Valley in their creation of an East Coast tech hub. This week, Google announced that it is loaning 22,000 square feet of its New York City office space to Cornell University until the school opens its new applied sciences campus.

Cornell is building its new campus on Roosevelt Island. The applied sciences curriculum will focus on economic development and entrepreneurship with the goal to get more of the faculty and students’ best new technology ideas to market. New York University is also beefing up its sciences program, building a campus and business incubator in Brooklyn. The new facility is a partnership between Cornell and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is spear-heading an effort to turn the Big Apple into a tech hub. He recently cited a number of tech startups that are hiring or expanding their office space in New York. The interest in growing the tech sector in New York City is part of Bloomberg’s strategy to diversify the city’s economy, which is currently primarily tied to Wall Street.

Google worked with the mayor on the donation to Cornell. According to an article in Forbes, The donated space is estimated to be worth $10 million.